Kale Chips with Apricot Guacamole

My Ingredients:

Dinosaur Kale

Shallots, Avocado, and Apricots

I am always looking for really good healthy snacks so what better than to make my own chips and dip.

Kale Chips:

1 bunch kale
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon seasoned salt

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a non insulated cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. Remove the leaves from the thick stems and tear into bite size pieces (I just tore them off but you can use kitchen scissors or a knife if you wish). Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoning salt.
3. Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, 15 to 20 minutes. I flipped them about halfway through so each side gets baked evenly.

These turned out super tasty. They are a little thin, so not great for dipping. However, you can definitely spread dip on them and they are delicious!


Apricot Guacamole:

2 Avacados
2 Shallots (you can also use onions if you like)
Sea Salt, to taste
Juice of 1 Lemon and/or Lime
2 Cloves garlic, micro grated, or minced
3 Apricots, diced



In a small bowl add all ingredients, mash and mix with fork. Salt and pepper to taste.

Super easy, super healthy and extremely delicious!

Enjoy!

Vegetarian Stuffed Bell Peppers

My produce items: Green Bell Peppers, Yellow Squash, Eggplant

3 large green bell peppers
2 yellow squash
1 eggplant
1 block of swiss cheese
1/4 block of cheddar cheese
1 cup of white wine
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of flour

First create cheese sauce.  I used a cheese fondue recipe I found online.  Shred swiss and cheddar cheese.  Simmer in a pot on the stove.  Add the white wine and stir until cheese is evenly melted.  Add salt and flour.  Continue to stir until smooth.  Sauce will be a little thick (not runny) but not too thick.

Hollow out bell peppers removing stems and seeds.  Dice up eggplant and squash.  Stuff bell peppers with eggplant and squash pieces loosely.  Pour cheese sauce into bell pepper to fill in all the gaps and spaces not occupied by squash and eggplant.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

Serves: 3

Final Verdict: Needs a lot of improvement!

The bell pepper was really good, but the squash and eggplant were not cooked at all.  I really should have roasted them a bit first before putting them inside the bell pepper and baking them.  The fondue cheese sauce was very unfortunate.  There was way too much wine in it.  The sauce just tasted like straight up wine.  I tried to thin it out but it ended up making things worse.  Next time I'm going to half all the measurements and put only 1/4 a cup of white wine if that.  I think all the flavors were there and it could have turned out really good if I had the right sauce and got the vegetables cooked evenly.  Perhaps eggplant isn't the best choice and next time I should just put the squash and toasted pieces of french bread inside the peppers.  If I had gotten the sauce correct it would have at least been edible.  But it wasn't.  I just threw out the contents and ate the green bell pepper part only.  Still, I do think I'm on to something here and it's a recipe worth perfecting.

Broccolini, Lemon, Cilantro

Blanch Broccolini in a large pot of salted water for 2 minutes. Drain immediately.

Melt butter in a large sauted pan, Add lemon zest/cilantro and stir, add Broccolini and heat for about 2 minutes. Add the lemon juice, salt and pepper, serve hot.

1 bunch Broccolini

unsalted butter

½ lemon, zested

Some lemon juice

Salt / pepper, fine cut cilantro

Produce Shopping at Underwood Family Farms Continued

No surprise, we went back.

There's also the most colorful selection of already picked produce at the exit for anything you might have missed.

Ratatouille!!

I never gave much thought to ratatouille (aside from the awesome Pixar/Disney movie) and when I did, it just... it did nothing for me.

Epiphanies, revelations and a couple tries later; I'm in love.

It all started with a produce box. And a cucumber impersonating an eggplant.

Side story time! Our list that's included with our produce box said something about a japanese eggplant. And I definitely didn't blink at all when it was handed to me. It clearly looked like a cucumber. Smelled like one. But I stowed it in my grocery bag until later that night. And I was so upset, disappointed and frustrated when I sliced it open and the aroma of cucumber hit my nose. But - I decided to roll with it.

I digress; here were my produce items:

Heirloom tomates, cilantro, traitorous cucumber, onion and tiny tomatoes.

And this was the recipe I followed. With cilantro added into the sauce. And cucumber substituted for eggplant. Don't do this. Just. Don't.

The result wasn't bad, the cucumber was definitely out of place, but it wasn't too bad. The puree needed work and overall, it was a nice first try. You know, pat on the back, good job - sport. A for effort type attempt.

So today, I went with a few fine ladies to a magical place with glistening happy vegetables and fruits galore. A place called Underwood Family Farms in Simi Valley.

I picked up some heirloom tomatoes, eggplant, sweet bell peppers (white, purple, green) and squash of the yellow and green persuasion. And went with my own recipe, loosely based on the original.

Ratatouille

Tomato Puree:
6 medium heirloom tomates (reserve 2 for veggies - see below)
1 tbsp minced garlic (about three cloves)
1/2 sm-med sweet onion
1/4 tsp dried basil
1 tbsp red wine
1-1 1/2 tsp salt
1-1 1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

In a blender or food processor, combine all things. And liquify. Easy, right? If you want chunks of onion and tomato, then pulse everything. And remember to taste. And taste often. Then adjust to your taste.

Move that puree to cover the bottom of your baking dish. I used cake tins. Cause cake tins are badass multi-taskers.

Veggies:
2 sm eggplants
1 med-lg zucchini
1 med-lg yellow squash
3 sm bell peppers
2 med heirloom tomatoes (slicing this sucks, you've been forewarned)

Run all those bad boys through a mandoline. Do not shave off a piece of your hand or knuckles. No one wants human flesh slices in their ratatouille. Well, maybe some people do. Me, I'll pass.

Next, make those slices dance on top of that tomato puree. Kind of like this:

Concentric circles: it's a beautiful thing.

Cover those luscious disks of delight with parchment and whisk them away to the oven - 350F for 45-55 minutes until that puree is a bubbling up on the sides.

I served mine with some risotto. And this time around, it was divine. The vegetables were perfectly cooked, the flavors were harmoniously married with the tomato puree, and the kick from the red pepper flakes - sigh. And life was grand that night.

Kohlrabi, Eggplant and Tomato Crostini

My produce items: Kohlrabi, Eggplant, Green Heirloom Tomatoes, Yellow Pear Tomatoes

1 loaf of french bread
1 kohlrabi
1 eggplant
2 green heirloom tomatoes
5 yellow pear tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic
3 teaspoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon of basil
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/8 teaspoon of pepper
1 tablespoon of parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons of mozzarella cheese

Skin and dice kohlrabi, dice eggplant, mince garlic and add all to a mixing bowl.  Add olive oil, basil, salt and pepper and mix well.  Bake in a toaster oven for 15-20 minutes (I set my toaster oven to 400 degrees).

Meanwhile, dice tomatoes and cut french bread into small bite size pieces.  Spread out french bread on a baking sheet.  Sprinkle mozzarella and parmesan cheese onto the french bread.

Add the baked mixture to the tomato mixture.  Mix everything up well.  Spoon onto french bread pieces.  Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for another 15-20 minutes.

Serves 12+

Final Verdict: Delicious!

This is the perfect appetizer to a party or prior to a meal.  The flavors were delicious together and perfect on toasted french bread.  Kohlrabi is close in flavor and texture to a radish and it went well together with the eggplant and tomatoes.  I made 12 and we ate them all as a dinner but it would work well as an appetizer at a party.

Samosas with Mango Plum Chutney

Produce: Carrots, Purple Scallions, and Plums

Ingredients:

•  2 large peeled, chopped Sweet Potatoes
• 1/2 cup peeled, chopped carrots
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1 tbls olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 1 tbls garam masala
• 1 tsp tumeric
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp ginger (fresh if you have it)
• 2 tbls butter
• 1 package puff pastry (usually comes with 2 sheets)
• 1 egg

Chutney:

• 3 chopped plums
• 1/2 cup mango preserves
• 1 chopped purple scallion
• 1 tsp chilli flakes
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1 1/2 tbls curry powder
• splash of vinegar
• 1 tbls brown sugar
• salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Thaw your puff pastry sheets.
Boil sweet potatoes until a knife easily cuts through. Drain and turn off the stove to mash, like regular mashed potatoes. Add butter and carrots. In a separate pan, saute onions in olive oil. Once transparent, add garlic and spices. Saute for another 5 minutes. Add spices to the mashed potatoes, this is your filling.

Cut each puff pastry sheet in four pieces. Add a dollop of potato, then brush the sides with eggwhite. pinch into triangles. Bake 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.

For the chutney, mix all ingredients together. Serve immediately. Makes 8 samosas. 

Result: **WINNER**

This is by far the best dish I've posted yet! Right out of the oven there's nothing more delicious. The spices are classic Indian, so I had everything for this dish on hand except the sweet potatoes and puff pastry. I guess I do have a lot of random items at home. The puff pastry was really easy to use, it tastes buttery and flakey, and it cuts quite a few steps out of the traditional way of making samosas. The chutney really adds to this dish, do not skip on the fruity goodness, it's so bright and fresh!

Carrots / Celery (2 of the 3 vegetables)

I minced a white onion, green onions, a red onion and some celery. I put them in pan with a couple spoons of olive oil. I left them going soft and yellow-ish, added a couple spoons of curry and continued to move around the curry/onion-mix. I continued the stirring until everything was brown, soft and all the liquid was absorbed. I added a couple cups of vegetable broth to deglaze the pan, added the cubed carrots and continued to cook it until the carrots were soft. I continued to add some more broth when it all the liquid was evaporated and stirred a couple times. At the end I needed some salt to adjust the flavor.

Mix can be eaten hot, warm or cold. Once I mixed it with some white rice for my office lunch. Another time I made some appetizers on Persian Cucumbers (with sesame sprinkled across). The rest of the baby carrots went into the freezer.

Carrot: came first from Iran and Afghanistan and they are famous for their Vitamin A (b-carotene turns into vitamin A in our body).

Celery (read on Wikipedia): Celery is used in weight-loss diets, where it provides low-calorie dietary fiber bulk. Celery is often purported to be a "negative calorie food" based on the assumption that it contains fewer calories than it takes to digest; however, this statement has no scientific merit.

Vegetables for the Freezer

My day-trip last Saturday brought me back to the Lavender Farm in Ojai (www.newoakranch.com). They have lavender products (salt, oil, crèmes) and you can cut and pick your own lavender. The season is from mid June – End of July.

On the way home I passed by the Underwood Family Farm (recommended by Kieu,

www.underwoodfamilyfarms.com). I made a stop to check out the vegetables.

I got zucchinis, eggplants, peppers (yellow, green and black) and decided to create a kind of a ratatouille, filling up my tupperware for the freezer.

I’m planning to use the veggie-mix for scrambled eggs, soups, mixing it with chicken or fish, cold veggie salad. I think I have several choices and can still make a real ratatouille adding some tomatoes.

Ratatouille (Wikipedia)

The word ratatouille comes from Occitan ratatolha and the recipe comes from Occitan cuisine. The French touiller means to toss food. Ratatouille originated in the area around present day Occitan Provença (French: Provence) and Niça (French: Nice); the Catalan "samfaina" and the Majorcan "tombet" are versions of the same dish.

I washed and cut vegetables in bite-sized cubes. Heated olive oil in a pain and added first onions and peppers. Sprinkled some “Herbs de Provence”, salt, pepper-flakes, some lavender flowers and pepper into the mix, continued to mix and brown the vegetables for about 5minutes.

Added zucchini when onions and peppers were soften.  And last but not least: added eggplant cubes to the mix. Stir well, add a small cup of water and cook for another couple minutes until all vegetables are soft. Taste if the vegetables have enough salt.

Mix can be eaten hot, warm or cold.

Vegetables can be exchanged or replaced with other vegetables: squash, other colored peppers, garlic and tomatoes.

Blueberry coffee cake with raspberry-orange jam and almond streusel topping

Okay, so I need a better name for this cake. Suggestions welcome...

I make this coffee cake often. Not this specific variation--I've never put in blueberries or jam before--but I make the cake part often. It's fine on its own, but slightly boring, so I usually use the cake batter as a jumping-off point for whatever fruit I happen to have in the house at the time. My standard variation is to peel, core, slice, and saute a couple of Granny Smith apples in butter, with cinnamon, sugar, and maybe a little amaretto if I have it on hand, which makes an apple pie-like filling and is generally met with enthusiasm.

Oh, standard disclaimer: There is usually a point in my baking projects at which I just sort of cease measuring. So, um, good luck there.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease a 9x9 pan. Have all ingredients at room temperature.

Sift together:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cups almond flour (ALMOND FLOUR IS THE SECRET TO ALL OF LIFE'S MYSTERIES YOU GUYS)
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Cream: 1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick or 4 tablespoons)
1/3 cup sugar (NOTE: When I do the apple variation, I usually only use 1/4 cup sugar, because there's so much sugar in the sauteed apple mixture.)

Then add:
1 egg
2/3 cup milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond extract

Mix in dry ingredients.

Then mix in however many blueberries you have, or want to add. This is the point at which I stopped measuring. I probably had 1 1/2 cups of blueberries, but I wouldn't swear to it.

Pour into greased pan, then dollop jam over the top. Again, I failed to measure. Maybe half a cup? I'm going to guess that the amount of jam you want will depend on a) how much you like jam and b) how strong/sweet your jam is. Mine was homemade raspberry jam, to which I added some orange juice and orange zest. I'd tell you how to make that but it was, of course, experimental, and I forgot to measure.

Anyway, swirl the jam around, like if you were making a fudge marble cake.

Streusel topping:
Chopped almonds...um, 3/4 cup, maybe?
2 or 3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar

Whirl it in a food processor until it's crumbly, then spread it on the cake. Bake for 25 minutes or until done. You do have to gauge doneness by eye, a bit, because the jam layer makes the toothpick test kind of irrelevant. If the streusel's light golden brown, that's a good sign.

One day, I promise to measure everything.

Rhubarb and Lychee Sauce

Produce: Lychee, Rhubarb, and Oranges from the farm

Ingredients:

• 3 Stalks of Rhubarb chopped
• 1 1/2 Cups peeled and chopped lychee berries
• 1/2 Cup honey
• 1 Cup (maybe more) sugar
• Orange Zest

Method:  In a large saucepan add chopped rhubarb. Then fill with water to the top of the fruit. Bring to simmer on medium heat, and let cook for up to 1 hour. Add the lychee pieces, honey and sugar. You can add in water as needed. 

Cook until the rhubarb is soft and falls apart (about another hour).  Once sauce gets to the desired consistency, take off the heat. Chill. Serve with orange zest garnish.

Result: still working toward perfection

Rhubarb is like coffee- you have to add sugar to your liking. Although I can drink black coffee regularly, rhubarb is better as a dessert.

This sauce is great independently, but could work well with ice cream, crepes, or shortbread. I've been trying to marry the bitter flavor of rhubarb and the super sweet lychee flavor for a long time (that's how nerdy I am). When I saw both these items at the farmer's market, I was quick to add them to the wheelbarrow. My mom always made rhubarb sauce, with 3 ingredients- rhubarb, sugar and water. This is an exotic version. I tried to add cocao nibs, as a play on bitter-sweet. Eh, leave them out. It didn't enhance the flavor in the way I'd hoped. Next trial I plan to play with adding orange juice and geletain. I may also change my ratio of rhubarb to lychee. The lychee berry is a subtle sweet flavor, and can get masked by the other ingredients. While this is a perfectly good recipe, it still needs some perfecting.



Vegetable Soup

My produce items: Rainbow Chard, Yellow Beans, White Bell Pepper, Purple Bell Pepper

1 bunch of rainbow chard
1 handful of yellow beans
1 white bell pepper
1 purple bell pepper
3 carrots
4 small red potatoes
1 clove of garlic
1/2 cup of chopped onion
1 can of vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon of seasoning salt (Penzey's 4S)
1/2 teaspoon of table salt

Chop up rainbow chard and yellow beans into small bite size portions.  Dice bell peppers, carrots, onion and potatoes into small bite size squares (they need to be soup spoon friendly bites).  Mince garlic.  Add all to a large pot.  Add water, just enough to cover all the vegetables and allow them some breathing room.  Stir well.  Add salt.

Cook on stove top medium heat covered for 1 hour stirring occasionally (I left the venting top on my lid open so steam can get out).  Add can of vegetable broth and cook an additional 30 minutes to an hour stirring occasionally.

Serve hot.

Serves 6-8

Final Verdict: Delicious!

This was my first homemade vegetable soup and it was excellent.  Very simple and easy to make if you have the patience for it.  I was originally going to use two cans of vegetable broth but I only had one on hand.  However it didn't really need it.  The vegetables stew in their own juices making their own delicious broth packed full of yummy veggy flavor and all the flavors went together wonderfully.  Another yummy vegetarian dish.

Curry Chicken Salad with Grapefruit on Lettuce

The list in the box mentioned pink grapefruit but I got a normal yellow, delicious one. It worked perfectly well.

Peel red onions, cut in thin slices, brown it in hot oil, add skin-less chicken breast (cut in mouth-size pieces). Continue to brown onions and chicken. Add 2 cups of white mushrooms, cut in small cubes. Sprinkle 3 tablespoons curry powder and some salt over the mix and continue to brown. Deglaze pan with a small bottle of beer and cook until no liquid is left. Let it cool before mixing with salad.

Salad dressing/vinaigrette: 2 tablespoon oil, 1 tablespoon vinegar, 1 tablespoon of yellow mustard, 1 tablespoon grapefruit juice, add salt and pepper.

Mix salad dressing with lettuce and fillet grapefruit slices; add cooled-down chicken in the middle of the green salad.

Grapefruit was developed in the West Indies in the early 1700s and first introduced to the United States in the 1820s, grown in Florida, Texas, Arizona and California. Grapefruits are obviously high in vitamin C.

Nectarine Tarts

Ok: I have to admit it. I ate the first round of nectarines the day I brought them home. YUMMY. I had to go back to the Farmer’s Market and buy some fresh once.  I bought them hard, not too soft.

I de-frosted store-bought puff pastry, cut it in squares and put them on sheet pants. I put the sheet pants back into the fridge for about 20minutes.

I washed the nectarines, cut them in thin slices and placed the slices across the squares. I sprinkled the peaches with brown sugar and cinnamon.

Backed the squares for about 25minutes on F375 until the puff pastry was brown.

Heated the apricot jelly and brushed the nectarines when the tarts where still warm. It gives the tarts a shiny glace.

Some changes for next time: add some chopped nuts under the fruits and mix the apricot jelly with some brandy.

Nectarine: is in the family of peaches but smooth-skinned and is known for more than 2,000 years.  It’s a good source of vitamins A and C.

Hey, look what I found!

So this one time, I wrote down a recipe but forgot to take pictures of it.

This next time, I took pictures but forgot to write down what it was that I cooked. I mean, it's a shepherd's pie. I know that much. I just couldn't tell you exactly how it came into being.

Let's see if we can guess, though.

It appears I was playing with kale, broccoli, zucchini, carrots, and some leafy green vegetable that I never did identify. It appears I added a white sauce and browned ground beef. And then, of course, the mashed potato crust. (Shepherd's pie is generally ground lamb--which I don't like--peas, and carrots. I think. It has been when I've had it in restaurants, anyway.)

So there you go?

Now for my first rounds of playing with our hand-picked berries. These don't exactly count, since they only use one ingredient, but I'm posting them anyway.

Lemon-blueberry pancakes:

1. Make favorite pancake recipe. I like the one in The Joy of Cooking.

2. Add 1 cup fresh blueberries and the grated zest of one lemon to the batter. 

3. That was easy.

4. These were really fantastic. I've had blueberry pancakes plenty of times, but never with lemon. The lemon was a good idea. 

Raspberry-chocolate chip scones:

I love scones. They're deceptively simple. The secret is (as with pie dough) to keep the butter well chilled and don't overwork. My scones take shape in my food processor, same as my pie dough.

Preheat oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Sift together 4 cups all-purpose flour, 2 tsp. baking powder, and 2 tbsp. sugar. Or just pulse it all in the food processor like I do.

Cut 2 sticks chilled salted butter (or use unsalted and and 1/2 tsp salt to your flour mixture) into chunks, then add to food processor. Pulse briefly until butter is pea-sized.

At this point, add 1 cup raspberries and 1/2 cup chocolate chips, as well as 1 cup heavy cream. Mix briefly, until mixture just comes together. (I find I have to dump it into a bowl and mash it together by hand a bit, as the food processor isn't great at incorporating everything.)

Form into 12 large or 24 small scones. You could carefully roll out the dough and cut triangles if you wanted, but I usually just go for the free-form biscuit shape shown above, because my kitchen has no counter space.

Bake for about 30 minutes, just until bottoms of scones are browned.

One of the nice things about running the raspberries through the food processor? Breaks up the seeds so they don't get stuck in your teeth! I actually think these might be better without the chocolate chips, but I've been forcing them on people and I seem to be in the minority on that one.

Nectarine and Arugala Salad

This simple salad can have many variations. Here's the way I did it:

1/2 Nectarine
1 1/2 cups Arugala
1 tsp Crystalized Ginger

Dressing:
1 tbl Almond Oil
1 tbl Red Wine Vinegar
1 tbl Cumquat Jam (thanks mom!)

Such a simple salad, but what a punch! It's sweet and spicey! What a delicious treat! You can use any kind of oil, vinegar, and jam for the dressing- orange marmelade or apricot jam could work just the same. This is a crowd pleaser!

Baked Ravioli

Produce: Zucchini, Bell Pepper, Garlic, Thyme (and tomatoes from mom)



• 2 tbl Olive Oil
• 1 small onion chopped
• 1 zucchini chopped
• 1 bell pepper chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 tomatoes chopped
• 1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes
• 2 tbl fresh thyme
• salt and pepper
• 2 lbs ravioli (I used ricotta spinach)
• 1 ball of mozzerella cubed
• 1/2 cup parmezan cheese

Method: In a pan heat olive oil on medium. Add onion, zucchini and bell pepper. Cook until soft. Add garlic and thyme and cook for another minute. Add tomatoes. Salt and pepper to taste. Let this sauce simmer on low for up to one hour.

Cook ravioli as instructed on the package. Drain and add to sauce. Turn off heat, and mix. Pour into a baking pan. Sprinkle cheese on top. Bake in preheated oven at 425 degrees for 25 - 30 minutes.

Result: absolutely delicious!

My challenge here was to make an Italian dish without the use of basil or oregano. As an herb snob, I refuse to use either unless they are fresh, and so this challenge was about using the fresh herbs I had on hand. This was a success. I didn't miss the taste of basil or oregano in this classic dish. The thyme made it a bit earthier, which is why I went with the spinach filled ravioli. I'd like to add this to my recipe list whenever I have extra thyme on my hands!